Goals/Plan for the year:
Short term goals of 405/225/450, year long goal of 1200+ total. Current plan is to keep slowly bulking until March, then take a few weeks to cut to sub 15% bf. Then onwards and upwards.

Strong squat Harry. Did you ever figure out the reason for your lagging bench? I remember months ago you had made posts about it.

Good idea on the pic. I'll get something in the next couple of days.

As for my bench, I think it just isn't a "strong" lift for me. I've been doing db bench and incline as my main movements and it seems to be working for me so far. I think the higher volume of lemur compared to my previous routines is helping.

Gym was RIDICULOUSLY busy today. Didn't expect there to be so many people using the squat rack/platform, all for squatting too. Took forever.

So I decided to not tolerate any "knee caving" movement during any of my squats. I feel it's something that I've gotten lax about and I don't want to get into bad habits. So I stopped the set after completing a rep where my knees caved pretty much at all.

Second, I taped my RDL to try and figure out what was going wrong. Camera was a bit low, but basically when the rep "felt wrong" it was because I had let my lower back round. I did well for 10/12 reps the first set, and the first 2 reps of subsequent sets. The rest were disgusting, and explains why I get ridiculous back pump from RDLs. I'm going to stick with the same weight for a top set, then drop the weight as I go, and again, focus on strict form.

Remember that rounding isn't really the problem, it's letting the back go from an arched to rounded position. Almost all good conventional deadlifters lift with a rounded back, but you'll see that it stays in that same rounding throughout the lift until lockout, when it obviously returns to a normal position. So don't get caught up in "rounding is bad" but think of it more like "going from arched to rounded is bad".

I've noticed that whenever I hurt my back (which is very rare, which some would say is amazing because I do pull with a rounded low back) it's when I my back goes from rounded, to even more rounded, and then I try to arch it back to the starting position.

I'm interested in hearing how the drop in weight for chinup pre activation goes. I'm considering doing the same (I'm at 70lbs as well).

I expect good things.

The hard part for me is to keep my ego in check. On some exercises(squat and chinups for some reason) I have to keep in mind that the preactivation is not some dick measuring 1RM contest, even with myself. Its purpose is to get me ready to pump out a PR on my first myorep set. It is only secondary as an indication of increased maximal strength.

If you are considering dropping the weight, ask yourself why you wouldn't. Is it because you think you're moving it nice and fast still, but maybe it's a bit too heavy? Or is it because you don't want to drop down because it's a big weight you want to say you can move? The first, you have a real debate. The second, well that isn't a real reason at all.

The hard part for me is to keep my ego in check. On some exercises(squat and chinups for some reason) I have to keep in mind that the preactivation is not some dick measuring 1RM contest, even with myself. Its purpose is to get me ready to pump out a PR on my first myorep set. It is only secondary as an indication of increased maximal strength.

If you are considering dropping the weight, ask yourself why you wouldn't. Is it because you think you're moving it nice and fast still, but maybe it's a bit too heavy? Or is it because you don't want to drop down because it's a big weight you want to say you can move? The first, you have a real debate. The second, well that isn't a real reason at all.

I understand what you mean... saying you can rep out +70lbs on chinups sounds nice.

I guess I'm more on the "bit too heavy" side. I can do +70lbs for a few reps, but I don't think the contraction is as clean as it should be. I'll drop back to +60lbs and really clean it up. If anything develops, I'll make a post about it. In the mean time, I'll check out your progression as well.

IP banned from the misc as of today and I'm legitimately upset about it. Like I felt a genuine sense of loss when I tried to log on today. Cant even view the forums now. Need to find a way around that asap

*PAGING ALL LEMUR EXPERTS*(obviously Lurker, but other opinions welcome)

Here is a recording of a 315# squat and my 345# squat that I used for preactivation. Let me know if 345# moved too slow(ie was too high a percentage) compared to 315 to use. It felt slow, but in review it looks good and pretty easy to me. What I would expect from a ~90% lift.

315x1starts @15seconds)

345x1:

Last, a weight update. Reviewing my calorie history, it looks like I've been bulking for about 16 weeks now. I've reached a morning waist measurement of just shy of 34", which I gave myself as a limit for this bulk. I'm going to slowly cut down on calories just a tad, and it looks like I'll be starting my next cut at the beginning of February instead of March.

if you feel like the rep was smooth and quicker than normal, could you cut the rest time down a minute or two?

same question, basically, but i would assume the opposite could be used for a grinding, real slow rep, would you increase the rest time a minute or two?

__________________
"Originally posted by ']TSS[ Dake: You guys are ridiculous, haha. Thanks though, just tryna look like a shaved ape. And the half foot of height Lurk has in me will always make my physique less impressive :tup:"

"Originally posted by WorldStrike: Drop the ego. The weights on the bar will lie to you, the mirror never will."